


#55

by foramomentonly



Series: Meet Ugly Drabbles and Fics [11]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Flint Manes is an asshole, M/M, Misogyny, Racism, background Flint Manes, racism leading to mistaken identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 07:02:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26349040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foramomentonly/pseuds/foramomentonly
Summary: Prompt: my twin clearly did something to piss you off, but you obviously don’t know I’m a twin so I’m listening to you tell me how much of an asshole I am and am very amused and it’s making you angrier
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: Meet Ugly Drabbles and Fics [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773934
Comments: 41
Kudos: 132





	#55

**Author's Note:**

> CW: Michael exhibits some unconscious racial bias here that leads to mistaken identity. I want to be transparent in case that isn’t what someone wants to read right now or ever. There is also some misogynistic language used.

“Hey, Manes!” 

Alex turns at the familiar, but unexpected voice and freezes. Michael Guerin is coming towards him, striding across the parking lot. Michael Guerin, with his wild curls and scoop neck tee shirts, his letterman jacket heavy on his broad shoulders and a pencil perpetually stuck behind his ear. Michael Guerin, who Alex has been hopelessly, laughably in love with for  _ at least _ two years; probably since middle school, if he’s being honest with himself in a way he definitely wasn’t ready to be in middle school.

Alex is so caught up in the miracle that is Michael Guerin wanting his attention that he doesn’t register Michael’s anger until he’s being crowded against the Manes family vehicle, a shabby behemoth of a Ford Explorer, with Michael bearing down on him. He doesn’t touch Alex, but stands obstinately before him, denying Alex the space to open the driver’s side door and escape into the car and blocking his path forward into the open expanse of the lot. A few groups of students are lingering, jangling keys in hand while they make plans and wrap up conversations, but no one is close enough to notice them, and Alex is grateful not to have an audience to whatever is about to go down between the skinny, emo kid and the genius, varsity football captain.

“What the fuck, Manes?” Michael demands, hazel eyes blazing gold in the bright, afternoon light, nose and brow wrinkled in a sort of grumpy way Alex can’t help but be charmed by. “What did you do to my sister?”

Alex blinks, tries to take a step back, but he’s already pressed against the door of the car and he succeeds only in kicking up dust and a small collection of pebbles onto Michael’s sneakers.

“What?” he asks. “Your sister?”

“Yeah, my sister, asshole,” Michael parrots. “You broke her fucking heart!”

Alex takes a deep breath and bursts out laughing, doubling over and nearly headbutting Michael in the process.

"You think this is  _ funny _ ?" Michael hisses, jaw tense and teeth bared.

“I do, actually,” Alex manages between breathless giggles, wiping tears from his eyes with the cuff of his sweatshirt.

Michael growls in frustration, but he doesn’t move, his hands flexing impotently into fists at his side.

“You really think you can dump Isobel a week before prom, call her a ‘frigid bitch,’ and I’m not gonna have anything to say about it?”

_ Isobel? _

_ Isobel Evans _ . 

Alex connects the dots quickly, ties noticing Isobel Evans’ puffy eyes in class together with Michael and Isobel’s apparent relationship and his own brother Flint’s posturing comments at the dinner table earlier in the week and reaches an easy conclusion that wipes the amused smile off his face.

“Sorry, wrong guy,” Alex says, and lurches forward, knocking Michael back with his shoulder and pulling open the car door. 

“Bullshit!” Michael replies, stepping forward again and holding the door open with one hand, gesturing to the Explorer with the other. “This is the car that always picked her up and  _ you’re _ the fucker who was in it.”

Alex whirls around so fast his backpack falls off his shoulder, and he leaves it in the dirt as he advances on Michael, poking a vicious finger into his own chest.

“I’m Alex Manes, I’m a junior, and I’m gay,” he spits. “My brother, Flint, is a senior and, apparently, as shitty of a boyfriend as he is a person. We both use  _ this _ piece of shit to get around, but we’re definitely two entirely different people.”

“B-brother?” Michael stammers, taking an uncertain step back and staring at Alex in confusion.

“Yeah, man.  _ Brother _ ,” Alex says with a snarl. “Believe it or not, there are  _ two _ Indigenous guys in this shithole of a school. But I guess I can give you a pass since we’re actually related.”

Michael deflates, shoulders slumping and head falling forward into his waiting palms.

“Fuck,” he mumbles, dragging both hands roughly down his face and raising his chin to meet Alex’s gaze directly. “I’m so sorry. I never really met the guy or saw him up close and I—Yeah, there’s no excuse. I’m sorry.”

Alex rolls his eyes; he’s still offended, but Michael’s apology seems sincere and in Roswell that’s a lot more than he’s come to expect.

“Yeah, well,” Alex mumbles, picking his backpack up off the ground and knocking it against the body of the Explorer to shake loose the dust clinging to the bottom, “whatever. Flint’s at some ROTC thing. He’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Wait,” Michael says, stepping forward to grip Alex’s arm before he climbs into the car. Alex glares at him and Michael rescinds his touch quickly, but Alex’s heart still flutters at the momentary feel of Michael’s strong, calloused fingers wrapped around his bicep. “Can I ask you something?”

“Why not,” Alex sighs, tossing his backpack into the back seat and leaning against the door he just slammed shut, arms crossed.

“Why weren’t you afraid of me?”

Alex scoffs.

“What?”   
  


“You didn’t even flinch when I was comin’ at you and,” Michael puffs out his chest and shakes out his shoulders, presenting himself to Alex exaggeratedly, “I’m pretty intimidating.”

Alex laughs despite himself, shaking his head, and Michael grins as the tension in the air dissipates just enough for Alex to admit he still isn’t impervious to Michael Guerin’s charm.

“You might be hot shit now,” Alex says, and Michael raises an eyebrow in interest, “but I remember scrawny Michael Guerin who had to leave the room every time Ms.Turcios fed her snake a live mouse in middle school.”

“So, what I’m hearing is you think I’m hot,” Michael says, smiling slow and suggestive, and if Alex didn’t know better, he’d think Michael Guerin was flirting with him.

“Even if you don’t know who  _ I _ am,” Alex continues, and Michael winces, “I know you, Guerin. And you’re not a guy to throw a punch unless you  _ have _ to.”

Alex watches Michael’s expression shift, the corners of his mouth dropping as his smile softens, his eyes growing wider and his brows raising as though in surprise. He looks younger, open and vulnerable and hopeful; he looks every bit like that goofy kid from middle school whose good-natured showboating in class always made Alex laugh and whose innate intelligence took his breath away. And Alex realizes he hasn’t seen Michael look like that kid since the head football coach recruited him out of gym class freshman year, moved him into his basement (if the rumors are true), and dumped the weight of a lackluster team on Michael’s shoulders, reviving his own career in the process.

“All right, Alex Manes,” Michael all but whispers to himself, stepping close enough for Alex to smell his refreshingly subtle body spray, to catalog the highlights in his curls brought out by the sun and the flecks of green in his eyes, “prepare to be known.”

Alex laughs breathlessly.

“What does  _ that _ mean?”

“It means what are you doing right now?” Michael flicks his eyes toward the Explorer, a bit of swagger creeping back into his smile. “Wanna give me a ride?”

A drive into the desert, a long, intimate conversation, and an impromptu blow job later, Alex thinks Michael might just have been flirting with him after all. He also thinks, for the first time in his life, he owes Flint one for being a dick and for hogging the car.


End file.
